Written in Iceland around 1200, the Saga of the Earls of Orkney blends history, poetry, legend and political propaganda to recount the rise of one of the North Atlantic’s most powerful Norse dynasties
For several centuries, the waters separating Norway, Scotland and Ireland did not represent the edge of the known world. They formed a maritime arena across which people, ships, wealth and political power moved with remarkable speed. Few medieval works convey that interconnected northern world as vividly as the Orkneyinga Saga, or Saga of the Earls of Orkney. Compiled by an unknown Icelandic author around the beginning of the thirteenth century, it recounts the history of the Norse earls who governed Orkney and, at different times, exercised influence across Shetland, Caithness, the Hebrides and parts of mainland Scotland. The saga is sometimes presented as the book explaining “how the Vikings conquered Scotland”. That description is enticing, but somewhat misleading. Norse armies never conquered the whole of Scotland, while the saga itself is neither an eyewitness account nor an entirely reliable military chronicle. What it offers is something more complex: a mixture of remembered history, oral tradition, political argument, praise poetry and compelling storytelling.
A Scottish story written in Iceland
The earliest version of the Orkneyinga Saga was probably composed in the late twelfth century, although the text continued to be revised and expanded during the thirteenth. Its author is unknown, but scholars generally believe that the work originated in Iceland, perhaps in an intellectual environment connected to the southern Icelandic cultural centre of Oddi. The saga begins in a world of myth, tracing the ancestors of the Orkney earls back to legendary northern rulers. It then moves towards recognisably historical territory, describing how Harald Fairhair, traditionally regarded as the first king to unify Norway, sailed west to suppress raiders operating from Orkney and Shetland. According to the narrative, Harald brought the islands under Norwegian authority and granted them to Rognvald Eysteinsson, Earl of Møre. Rognvald subsequently transferred the territory to his brother Sigurd, establishing the dynasty from which the later earls claimed descent. Modern historians are cautious about taking this account literally. Harald’s supposed western expedition may preserve a genuine tradition, but it could also reflect political concerns current when the saga was written, when the Norwegian Crown was seeking to reinforce its authority over the North Atlantic islands. The story therefore tells us at least as much about thirteenth-century arguments over sovereignty as it does about ninth-century conquest.
From raiding to settlement
Scandinavian attacks on Scotland began near the end of the eighth century. The monastery on Iona, one of the most important Christian centres in the British Isles, was raided repeatedly from 795 onwards. In 806, an attack reportedly killed 68 members of its religious community. Yet raids represented only the beginning of the Norse presence. Scandinavian settlers—predominantly from Norway—established lasting communities in Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides. These territories became bases for farming, commerce, warfare and further expansion across the Irish Sea. The northern and western islands were particularly well suited to a maritime society. A vessel capable of carrying warriors could also transport settlers, livestock and merchandise. Control of islands and sheltered anchorages gave Norse leaders access to sea routes linking Norway with Scotland, Ireland, England, the Faroes and Iceland. Rather than advancing southwards through Scotland in a single coordinated invasion, Norse power developed through a changing combination of raids, migration, intermarriage, tribute, alliances and local conquest. This process also produced mixed Norse-Gaelic societies. The newcomers did not simply eliminate the populations they encountered. They traded and intermarried with them, while political identities developed that cannot comfortably be classified as exclusively Scandinavian or Celtic.
Warriors, saints and rival earls
The Orkneyinga Saga focuses primarily on the jarls—or earls—who ruled the islands between the Viking Age and the thirteenth century. Its stories are filled with maritime expeditions, dynastic feuds, calculated marriages and sudden reversals of fortune. One of its memorable early figures is Torf-Einarr, the son whom his father initially considers least likely to become a successful ruler. Einarr travels to Orkney, defeats rival leaders and establishes himself as earl, becoming the ancestor of a dynasty that dominates much of the saga. The narrative later follows figures such as Thorfinn the Mighty, whose authority is portrayed as extending deeply into northern Scotland, and Rögnvald Kali Kolsson, the cultured warrior and poet who was eventually recognised as a saint. Its most celebrated religious story concerns Magnus Erlendsson. Depicted as an unusually peaceful and devout Viking nobleman, Magnus refuses to fight during a Norwegian campaign and later becomes joint Earl of Orkney. His rivalry with his cousin Haakon ends with Magnus’s murder on Egilsay, probably in 1117. He was subsequently venerated as St Magnus, and Kirkwall’s cathedral was founded in his honour. The work therefore does not present a simple celebration of uninterrupted Norse expansion. Its recurring subject is internal conflict: cousins, brothers and competing branches of the same family struggle for power, frequently undermining the political order they hope to control.
Can the saga be trusted?
The Orkneyinga Saga was written centuries after some of its earliest events, and its opening sections contain unmistakably legendary material. Dramatic speeches, supernatural signs and carefully constructed scenes remind readers that this is literature as well as history. Even the saga’s account of the creation of the Orkney earldom may have served a political purpose. By connecting its rulers to the Norwegian Crown, the author gave their authority royal legitimacy. At the same time, the earls are frequently shown acting independently, negotiating with kings rather than merely obeying them. The saga also incorporates older skaldic poems, genealogies and traditions that may preserve information unavailable elsewhere. As its narrative approaches the twelfth century—the period closest to its composition—its historical value generally becomes stronger. It should consequently be read neither as pure fact nor dismissed as fiction. Like many medieval chronicles, it is evidence on several levels: for the events it describes, for the traditions from which it was assembled and for the political world in which its author lived.
The end of Norwegian power in Scotland
Norse influence in Scotland lasted far beyond the conventional end of the Viking Age. Orkney and Shetland remained under the Norwegian Crown, while control of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man continued to be disputed. In 1263, King Haakon IV of Norway led a major expedition to western Scotland. After the inconclusive Battle of Largs and Haakon’s death in Orkney that December, Norway’s position weakened. Under the Treaty of Perth in 1266, the Norwegian Crown transferred the Hebrides and the Isle of Man to Scotland, although it retained Orkney and Shetland. The Northern Isles did not become part of Scotland until 1468–69, when Christian I of Denmark and Norway pledged them as security for the dowry of his daughter Margaret, who married James III of Scotland. The money was never paid and the islands remained under Scottish control. Their Scandinavian inheritance, however, did not disappear. It survives in archaeological remains, family traditions, festivals and an extraordinary concentration of place names derived from Old Norse. The Orkneyinga Saga remains central to that heritage. It is not the straightforward record of a Viking conquest of Scotland sometimes promised by dramatic headlines. It is something richer: the literary memory of a region in which Nordic and Scottish history became inseparable.
Suggested Online Sources
Vikingeskibsmuseet.dk
Visitscotland.com
Media.nms.ac.uk
